Yes, I remember a time when orienteering and finding the best fishing holes had nothing to do with electronics. It involved Dad, a few uncles, my grandma and grandpa and a couple of my Dad's friends. Each one had skills they passed on to me. Nowadays kids have no clue about things I take for granted because they have electronic devices that are supposedly more accurate. On the other hand, my batteries don't run down.
The Good Old Days
- Thread starter dinosaur
- Start date
Cappy
Well-Known Member
Last summer, Me and Peg loaded up a big picnic lunch and took 2 visiting couples, on a ride in the Atchafalaya River basin. It's an area of hard wood swamp designed to be a flood plain for the local river. Almost 30 miles wide in parts and around 150 miles long its a pretty big fresh water river basin area. Maybe the biggest I dont know Florida seems to rezone on occasion, Who cares its a big swamp.
. For the last few days I had been listening to one of the guys going on at length at his woodsman ability and orienteering expertise, and recount several mighty weekend adventures on park trails. Shame on me but I thought it time for a lesson. I handed him a map with our proposed route threw the swamp highlighted in pink(Peg's highlighter). Traced it with my finger explaining how we would take a river to a bayou to a bay to bayou them a short cut through a canal to another bayou and make a big circle back to the landing and never pass the same place twice. He carefully studied the map asked some questions about the penciled marks we had put on it and right before we left the landing I told him to navigate while I drove. All went well, and as we idled away from the landing he looked around and pointed for the little river we would take. As I nosed into the river he correctly and smuggishly told me to take the first left again he was right so I then Hooked my boat up and put it on step slid her into the first narrow bayou at her cruising speed of around 35 mph. The bayou was narrow and we went a sliding around some of those curves that looked like they had been laid out by tracing around your finger tip. So sharp, you expected to see your tail ahead going around. The one bayou had about 3 of those switch back steep curves several bad s curves and several long banking curves. I took them all on step sliding around as every body by my navigator hung on gawking at the big cypres trees flying by. The navigator was too busy trying to peel the map from around his head, hold it down and follow or extremely curvy route. I cut the points slid deep into the bends and had a ball. It's easy to do when you know all the dangerous stumps by name. Right about the time I saw our Navagator ahd folded and regained control of the map, I set us down slowed down and killed the motor. We were looking at what locals call the hand. The bayou sent out in a delta of sorts with 5 channels to choose from. I leaned back stretched and said "which way"? I sat there for a half hour and finally started off at an angle and showed him what the map didn't. The canal we needed to take wasn't visible cause of the angle it took off at and the curve of the bayou. The way he finally convinced himself was right was a dead end canal dug by the oil field. Lesson learned?? I doubt it. But I had fun.
. For the last few days I had been listening to one of the guys going on at length at his woodsman ability and orienteering expertise, and recount several mighty weekend adventures on park trails. Shame on me but I thought it time for a lesson. I handed him a map with our proposed route threw the swamp highlighted in pink(Peg's highlighter). Traced it with my finger explaining how we would take a river to a bayou to a bay to bayou them a short cut through a canal to another bayou and make a big circle back to the landing and never pass the same place twice. He carefully studied the map asked some questions about the penciled marks we had put on it and right before we left the landing I told him to navigate while I drove. All went well, and as we idled away from the landing he looked around and pointed for the little river we would take. As I nosed into the river he correctly and smuggishly told me to take the first left again he was right so I then Hooked my boat up and put it on step slid her into the first narrow bayou at her cruising speed of around 35 mph. The bayou was narrow and we went a sliding around some of those curves that looked like they had been laid out by tracing around your finger tip. So sharp, you expected to see your tail ahead going around. The one bayou had about 3 of those switch back steep curves several bad s curves and several long banking curves. I took them all on step sliding around as every body by my navigator hung on gawking at the big cypres trees flying by. The navigator was too busy trying to peel the map from around his head, hold it down and follow or extremely curvy route. I cut the points slid deep into the bends and had a ball. It's easy to do when you know all the dangerous stumps by name. Right about the time I saw our Navagator ahd folded and regained control of the map, I set us down slowed down and killed the motor. We were looking at what locals call the hand. The bayou sent out in a delta of sorts with 5 channels to choose from. I leaned back stretched and said "which way"? I sat there for a half hour and finally started off at an angle and showed him what the map didn't. The canal we needed to take wasn't visible cause of the angle it took off at and the curve of the bayou. The way he finally convinced himself was right was a dead end canal dug by the oil field. Lesson learned?? I doubt it. But I had fun. 
If there isn't a mountain on the horizon for orientation, you do the navigating.ppine
Forester
Cappy,
You were a bad boy. But I wish I was there to see it.
You were a bad boy. But I wish I was there to see it.
ponderosa
Active Member
Well it isn't an art completely lost to gps just yet. I taught nine teenaged girls how to use a map and compass last week. They seemed to get it and thought it was fun. (The prizes stashed at various spots along the course I set probably had something to do with the fun factor though).
We have a society that has become so techno-dependent that they have forgotten how to function without it. As people become more and more techno dependent they lose their freedom and autonomy to function without technology. Technology becomes like an umbilical cord that they cannot function without.
And what would people do in a grid down situation where they could not use technology? Look at Katrina for example.
And what would people do in a grid down situation where they could not use technology? Look at Katrina for example.